Sunday, December 12, 2010

Rudy: “Methinks it's about time to start stockpiling those bread-bags for some sloppy snowy early morning runs”OrangeMat: “explain, please”

When it gets cold, wet and snowy, [like it’s gonna be soon, I’m sure] I put bread-bags between my sox and my running shoes to keep my tootsies dry = dry feet are happy feet [once they get wet, they NEVER warm back up]. My mom used to do this when I was a kid in CT. Of course, not only did the bread bags keep my feet dry, it ALSO made them easier to slip out of our boots when they were packed in with snow since the buckles on our old-fashioned galoshes or the laces on our “duck boots” would be glacially impacted with snow and ice. Thankfully, our house back then had something that is a staple in New England architecture which is seldom accommodated in building design down here … A Mud Room.

“A mud room [or mudroom] is a room which is built into some houses to act as a barrier between outdoors and indoors. Especially in regions with wet, muddy winters, a mud room can be a useful addition as it helps to keep the house clean. In addition, the mud room constitutes a clear boundary between indoors and out, which can be a useful reminder for animals and exuberant members of the household

Typically, a mud room has easily cleaned floors made in materials like tile, concrete, or linoleum. In extreme cases, a mud room may even have a drain in the floor to make sluicing the floor very easy. A well designed mud room also has ample hooks and racks for damp, wet clothing, as well as racks or cubbies for shoes. In addition, benches for people to sit on while they remove their shoes are not uncommon. All of these measures are designed to encourage people to remove sodden or dirty layers before entering the house.

Generally, mud rooms are not the primary entrances of homes, since they tend to be informal in nature. A side or backyard door usually leads into the mud room, and family members may be encouraged to use it while guests are welcomed through the front door. Often, the washer and dryer are also tucked into the mud room, for the sake of convenience. A mud room which doubles as a laundry room is handy, since wet baskets of clothing do not need to be carried through the house to outdoor clotheslines, and soiled or wet clothing can be immediately dumped into a washer without being tracked through the house”

In our house in Connecticut, the order was to walk around behind the house via the walkway next to the garage and come in through the back. There we would de-boot, de-hat and un-snow, [hockey sticks and skates were left outside for the time being] before proceeding to the kitchen for our well-deserved hot chocolate [home-made, mind you; we didn’t discover Swiss Miss till we moved down here to NJ]

OrangeMat: “Either I don't run early enough or we just don't get that much sloppy wet and cold stuff up here.... but I'll keep it in mind for if and when we (and I) do!”

There has have been a time or two that the bags were TOTALLY necessary due to icy slush, but truth be told … once the streets are dry, I prefer to run in my shorter ankle sox again. There’s something exhilaratingly Badass about finishing a Pre-Dawn Run bundled and gloved, exhaling clouds of your own creation, sweaty steam coming from your active-fleece sweatshirt; then hiking up your sleeves and taking a cool-down stroll while the frosty street-level wind curls around your ankles.

Of course, I also sleep with my foot sticking out of the blanket, even on the coldest nights, so I MAY be sort of a freak in that respect.

NOTE: Yeah I know ... there ARE solutions that you can BUY, like gaiters for outside and waterproof soxfor inside ... but what fun is THAT???

Add the butter to a medium sauce pot and melt it over medium to medium-high heat. Add the shallots and thyme and sauté for 2 minutes, then add the flour and stir 1 minute. Whisk in the stock, Worcestershire and maple syrup. Season with black pepper, to taste, and reduce the mixture until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 to 12 minutes.

I threw a bunch of leftover turkey in it and stirred around … “Dinner’s ready,” I shouted to D’Kid, “Make what you want.”

Again, I was getting that twitchy feeling; I just wanted to go.

‘This must be what any athlete who performs in “heats” must go through. I guess that makes me an athlete’ I rationalized. Not being of the same caliber of Michael Phelps and having my own Green Room to put on an iPod to chill out and prepare for “the next round,” I put on the TV … again … this time we had “The Sandlot” which D’Kid had never seen before. It was a pleasant diversion.

“One hour and forty minutes” she reminded me at 9:20.“I dunno if I’m waiting that long” I answered her “Ten o’clock might be good enough.”“It doesn’t have to be EXACTLY six hours, does it???”

I was tempted to explain the whole 4-5-6 sequence and the spirit of the thing, but …

“No, not really.”

After she had eaten and gotten caught up with her emails and Facebook [around 9:30] D’Wife announced “I gotta get a walk. I had a mind-numbing day, I’m feeling a little stiff and I want to get outside. I’ll be back before you do your next ‘thing’ … Eleven, right?”“Yeah … I guess”“Mare, you wanna come with me?” Mom asked, as she bundled up. It had gotten pretty cold since we’d been outside last [it was now below 40°].“No, thank you” D’Kid answered.“Okay, fine” and she was out the door.

It was barely five minutes later that I had an idea.

“You know what??? Let’s go NOW! We can catch up to Mom and I can finish my last three miles with both of you”“Don’t you have to run it???”I made an Executive Decision as Commissioner “At this point? Not really.”

I quickly asked D’Kid to find my phone and to call her Mom; firstly to tell her that we’d changed our minds and were coming out and to find out approximately where she was. Mare told her to “Wait for us” but that wasn’t happening; we’d have to chase her down.

We got ourselves bundled up as well and headed out to the other development that Mom likes to walk in. We ran the first half mile, but stopped after that, since D’Kid isn’t used to running that far at once, especially on a cold dark night, and pretty much past her bedtime.

When we got to the first “decision point,” I asked, “Straight or left? Which way do you think Mom went?”“We could call her”“Good idea, give me the phone”

Yep, we left it home.

So our back-up plan became: walk about a mile and a half, constantly scanning the neighborhood for the flicker of a flashlight, then turn around, perhaps to meet up with D’Wife on the return. We reached our pre-determined turnaround point with a glimpse nor a sound of her [I figured that since it was pretty much silent out there, we’d be able to hear the rustle of leaves or crunch of gravel generated by anyone walking near us within a couple hundred yards or so] We didn’t give up entirely, however. We stopped and looked down each cul-de-sac we passed by, in the hope we’d spot her.

Just as we were descending the last dip out of the development and heading back to our own, D’Kid halted turned around.

“Is that a flashlight?” she asked, pointing behind us.

Sure enough, a single, small flicker danced rhythmically toward us.

“You guys are nuts!!!” she shouted to us with a laugh as we backtracked to rejoin her.

D’Kid gave her mom a hug and we strolled home, chatting about not much at all. We were almost all the way home when she asked me …

Start: 5:00PMAt this point, the challenge had become, “refuel and rehydrate when you can, but not so close to the next leg that your tummy bothers you.”

In other words “How many bagels with peanut butter can you eat today?”

It didn’t seem like we had been back from the Dentist very long before the sun was down and we on our way back up to the High School. The temperature was now 48° … Ten degrees colder than when my day started. This lap would be done in sweatpants, with a short sleeve cotton T-Shirt over a poly longsleeve. The sky was clear; the wind had scrubbed the clouds away and thankfully subsided to a comfortable breeze. As we drove up the street [the High School is a mere mile and a half away] I wondered:

“Are there lights on the track?”

‘No, there aren’t’ as it turns out, merely the ambient light from the orange lights on the parking lot, a few utility lamps around the school and some super-bright lights at the used-track and trailer lot next door. The darkness didn’t seem to deter a half dozen or so OTHER souls who were already looping the track when we arrived.

I – again - set my bottle down at trackside, it almost the same spot as lunchtime. I left the keys with D’Kid, fearful I’d lose them in the dark. I quickly crossed myself and started off again.

It didn’t take long for me to get on another runner’s shoulder. In the dark, I couldn’t picture an age on him, but he had the same “old school” outfit as I was wearing. I gave him a few yards on me, just for politeness and my own security; you never know how a person will react when a stranger decides to run beside him in the dark. I also wasn’t sure if, perhaps, these were an organized Friday Evening Running Club, and I may have been jumping into their gig, unannounced, uninvited and unsponsored … Localism, remember??? It COULD happen on a track, just as easily as on a beach [surfers] or a trail [MTBers].

Eventually, he kicked away from me and finished his run for the evening. That left only myself and a woman I’d seen who I reckoned to be on the other side of the track from me, but travelling at an unknown pace. If she were going faster, she’d pass me eventually; if I were the quicker of us, I’d catch her. However, if we were going the same speed, or very near the same speed, we’d never meet.

Such is life.

Left Brain was pondering the math of this while Right Brain was following some light in the air above us. It’s not unusual to see helicopters out here; there are commuter flights, traffic spotters, MedEvacs, and Army / Marines flying around all the time. But they don’t usually circle around like this one was. They also don’t have Police and Fire equipment rushing up to where they’re circling around. I didn’t see any accident-like activity on the highway nearby, so when the Firefighters lit some flares in the parking lot area behind the bleachers [and AWAY from where we had parked, I could only assume it was some sort of Emergency Landing / Take-Off practice.

I was at the far end of the field/track the NJ State Police S-76 began its approach, thumping and whirring to its landing spot to my left.

‘I’d better let M know what I think’s going on, when I get back to the car’ I thought to myself.

I was one lap too late to come up with that idea, as I saw a little shadowy figure running onto the track toward me.

As I suspected, she’d been watching the DVD in the car with her headphones on and hadn’t noticed any activity until she saw the helo come down. She couldn’t see across the field in the dark and had no idea what had become of me. The poor little miss was pretty shaken.

The girl I’d been “chasing” was there also, and she had no idea what the hubbub was about either. We all figured that if there had been something very serious, the Police, Firefighters and Helo Crew would be doing something far less casual than the “not much” they were doing at that moment … OR, they would have had the courtesy to chase us away.

“I’ve got another mile to go,” I semi-invited the runnerette.“No, I think I’m done for the night,” she declined.

“I’ve got two miles done, sweetie” I comforted D’Kid “Would you like me to walk with you for the last four laps”“Let’s run!” she cheered through what was left of her tears and took off, her UGGs galumphing on the rubberized surface.

We Gallowalked the next 1200 yards together, before she allowed me to run the last lap by myself.

We were into the Home Stretch. This leg felt the best of the day; hit 2 miles in about 16 minutes without much of a push, maybe having someone to “chase” helped, or perhaps the “six-mile warm-up” had something to do with it

Sadly, no one asked about the custom bib. To their credit, it WAS dark and the bib WAS black.

A little extra challenge was added to my day, as D’Kid had a Dentist Appointment at 12:30. The plan was then to shuffle the schedule a touch and do: 6AM > 11AM > 5PM > 11PM.

HEY!!! I’m “The Commissioner!!!” I can do that!!!

After we got D’Wife off to work at 9:30, we chilled out a little and impatiently watched the clock. I had a bad feeling about this … I knew that once I finished the first leg, I’d want to get to the second ASAP [there’s a dog joke in there someplace, I’m sure].

I resisted as best as I could, killing time in front of the TV. Somehow, while channel surfing, I discovered “Fanboys” on Encore. It had been recommended to me by a Dad dressed as Buzz Lightyear on Halloween, after I told his kid in the Boba Fett costume that “Han shot first!”

D’Kid and I were enjoying it, but at 10:45, it was time to get ready and roll out. We only saw up to the part where Zoe bails the dudes out of jail, so … NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!!

The cold was coming in strong and the wind had seriously kicked up; there would be NO bike-pacing today. We switched to Plan B: D’Kid would sit in D’Car with D’Laptop and watch “Alice in Wonderland” while Dad ran 12 laps and change around the Winslow High School track. I had already done my pre-run warm-up routine for Leg One, so there was no need to repeat it, as I had kept myself busy and mobile for the morning.

“Good luck Dad,” D’Kid wished me, “And pace yourself.”I stepped out of the car and gust nearly took my 20in24 hat off my head. I laid my water bottle and car keys down at a random spot by the side of the track, stepped out of my sweatpants and started off. 11:13AM. Another gust DID take my hat off, but it didn’t fly far, so I grabbed it and put it back on, backwards this time.

That didn’t help, since once I made the turn at the far end of the track, the headwind became a tailwind and flipped it off again. I dropped my hat on the pile and continued, knowing that an ice cream headache was in the works.

As I finished Lap Two, I notice the headlights were still on, so I took a detour back to the parking lot. I turned them off, gave D’Kid another hug, was reminded again to pace myself and got back on the track. My bib rustled in the seemingly near gale-force winds. I tucked my hands in my sleeves, since dumbass me forgot my gloves. My legs were pinking up and warming in the chilly wind, but my toes were going numb.

“This is stupid. What’s the point??? You’re SO Undertrained. There’s NO WAY you’re doing all 12 miles today. You’re gonna get sick, you know. Stop now, who’s gonna know? No one else is doing this … Any idea WHY??? Because it’s pointless!!! Idiot.”

I just let her talk and ignored her while I counted the laps, completing one just about every two minutes“Six done … Six left”“Seven … and Five”“Eight laps … two miles … One mile left … Four Laps”“Three …”“Two …”“One …”“… and DONE!!!”

11:40 … just enough time for us to shower up and head off to the dentist.Bon Jovi started playing in my head: “Ahhhhh-ah!!! We’re halfway there …!!!”

Start: 6:00AMJust as The Weather Channel had predicted, it was warm, wet & windy when I woke up at 5:20AM. Shorts, T-shirt and Team Tania socks would work fine. It was pretty dark and foggy, so I put on the Reflecto-Vest and Team Tania blinkie, to be safe and to be seen. I couldn’t count on what traffic there was to be very attentive to the little dude running around on Black Friday, as they would probably be cursing themselves out for getting to WalMart so “late.”

My choice for my first course route was easy; I had to run past our Church, so I could see The Blessed Mother: say a Hail Mary; give extra thanks for my family, friends and relatives; and ask for to watch over me on this silly thing I was doing. I wasn’t racing for time today, so what was a minute or so, right??? [even on days when I have raced this course, on my own, just for fun, I’ve always stopped there, too, so …]

I reached the mile and a half turn in 13 minutes or so. I wasn’t running for time on the day, but I still wanted to keep myself around a 9-minute mile pace, for clock management’s sake. I cruised down the street towards Chocolate Pretzel Heaven, and passed the spot where a few months earlier, the first rumblings of what would become “The Big POING!!!” in my calf came upon me. It was there that Left Brain calculated / recalled that we reached 0.7 miles left to go in THIS LEG, we would have run EXACTLY 500 miles for the year. That’s nothing compared to what some of marathoning friends do, but pretty impressive [I must say] for a dude who runs for - essentially - no reason whatsoever.

I rounded the final turn into the development as the 6:26AM train whistled at the crossing about a mile away. I refrained from throwing any kind of a kick or sprint in at the end; we still had a long day ahead and had only reached the first “virtual water stop”On to the Second Leg >>>

Also known as "La Tortuga's 4x5x6" or "Run Like an Idiot" ... It’s a virtual / online competition of 4 Runs x 5K each x 6 Hours apart ... Runners may start any time, but I recommended something in the 5-7AM time frame.

HISTORY: My first coach [AKA “ La Tortuga”] would do this while on business travel ... she'd do three miles on the hotel Dreadmill in the morning, 3 more at lunch [preferably outside], ANOTHER 3 before dinner [again, preferably outside] and finish up with a final three at bedtime on the ‘Mill

She presented this to me and we made a game of it … I had YET to get the 4th leg done.

“Run Like An Idiot” comes from the Phish tune “Run Like An Antelope” specifically the line “Run like an antelope; out of control”

I've attempted it a time or two or three but I had YET to get that 4th Leg done

***

I set up an “EVENT” page on Facebook and invited all the runners / triathletes I could think of from to participate; friends from Kick, Slowtwitch, high school, college and church. I sent out maybe five dozen invites; I received two dozen “nopes” another half a dozen “maybes” and bunch of “awaiting replies” and four “yeses” [including myself]

To be fair, some of the “nopes” already had events planned or in other cases, had just run the Philly Marathon the weekend before.

For an extra treat, I made up custom bibs for the people who committed, one for each leg [so they didn’t have to re-use the same one all day] and THEY could pick their own number. I emailed them out as PDFs for the participants to print on their own and wear [or not] as they see fit. I also figured that if it was raining or snowing and our bibs got trashed, we could print another one for the scrapbook!!!

I’m a GENIUS!!!

Two of them picked hockey players:Jenn - #9 [Maurice Richard]Rebecca - #66 [Mario Lemieux]Gina - #10 [she had to be different and pick Larry Bowa]

I chose #37 … I always choose #37 … Even BEFORE I saw “Clerks”

Note: Jenn’s boyfriend asked her “Why not just do a 20K?”She replied “What fun is that???”SHE’s a real trooper, since she’s in TOR and they DIDN’T have the day off

***

After having a “Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat” I was DEEP In Pre-Race mode ... reviewing the course[s], managing the gear, checking the talismans, dorking out on The Weather Channel [looked like a little bit of everything: warm in the morning => a little rain in the afternoon => steadily clearing but cooling], fueling & hydrating, of course. Just the same, I allowed myself a “dessert beer” just for fun and … jeez, you GOTTA be thankful, right???

[Krooked Skateboards pint glass]

Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin (Pugsley’s Signature Series)Smashed Pumpkin is a big-bodied beer with a light coppery orange color and pleasing aroma of pumpkin and nutmeg. The OG and final Alc./Vol. provide the structure and body. Pale Ale, Wheat and Light Munich Malts combine with the natural tannin in pumpkin and the delicate spiciness of Willamette and Hallertau Hops to balance the sweetness of the fruit. To fully enjoy all the flavors, this ale is best drunk at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Smashed Pumpkin pairs well with sharp cheeses, nuts, lamb, hearty stews and desserts like flan or pumpkin pie. Chefs find this an excellent beer to cook with in dishes such as braised short ribs.As you can see, it’s a little thin in the head [much like myself] but that’s not all that important in this style, I don’t think. At 9% ABV, it was a bit stronger than I would have wanted on a race night, especially after the “Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat” we’d just had an hour or two before. The spiciness, caramel and brown sugar hints and the high alcohol where a good warmer on a day which had seen our first snowfall around noonOn to the First Leg >>>

Friday, November 19, 2010

I’ve been kind of a dick lately to one of my online running pals and Genie called me on it.

“I mean, we all get snarky on occasion (even perfect little me.....SNORT) but as a rule you are way less mean than any of us. I just couldn't figure out why him. I know he’s kinda pathetic, but harmless, and basically good people. Unlike those idiots at The Bad Place. That's why I was surprised you've been so critical of both of them lately.”

Yeah, I came to realize that’s really not my way. So, I made a gesture of good faith that I hoped would restore balance. Something pretty effortless on my part that I figured had no chance of succeeding but, if it should, would mean so much to the recipient.

I tossed a pebble into the pond, to see if it might make a splash, and where the ripples might go.***

Last week a friend of mine, Kevin Yetman, informed our online running club that he had registered for your Middlebury Maple Run Half Marathon on May 1st, 2011. He further let us know that he was the SECOND person to register.

Kevin [who goes by “EQ43” online] is a lifetime bib-holder at the Equinox Marathon, run every September in Fairbanks, AK. He has a particular grudge with a hill on the course called “Ester Dome.” This year, through a LOT of hard work, he conquered his personal nemesis, and had his best race there ever.

Can you guess which number he “owns”???

Kevin is a hardcore marathoner and all-around great guy. It would mean a lot to him [and our online group] if you could see fit to “manually” assign him #43 for YOUR race as well. Seeing as he registered so early, I hope this wouldn’t be too much of a bother. If #43 has already been assigned, rolling him back to #143 or #243, would be an equal treat for him I’m sure.

As he posted: “LOL, that would be funny if it turned out I was bib 43”

If you could make this happen, it would be beyond awesome; if not, we totally understand.

Thank you for your time

Randy MarthinsAtco, NJ

***

Randy,

I don’t assign numbers until a couple of days before the race, usually alphabetically, but I can certainly force my system to do something else.

Could you kindly send me a reminder early the week of 4/27? I’ll file your email and will make every effort to remember this, but a nudge would certainly be helpful.

Hope you’ll be joining us as well!

Thanks, Sue.

Sue Hoxie

***

When I let the Misfits know that I’d succeeded, Genie emailed me back:

“EEEEEE!!! YOU DID IT!!!! This is gonna be so cool! He is going to be sooooo surprised!!Are you eventually going to tell him you asked for this or just let it remain a coincidence?One of us can tell him, if you don't want to. I think you deserve credit for it and it would mean a lot to him to see the email you wrote about how hard he works and stuff.”

My coach, Xena’s doing the race too, and will probably be there when he/they get their bibs; I’ll let her know that she can tell him THEN

I figured it was the least I could do … actually the LEAST would be nothing at all, so I stepped it up a little. Balance may have been restored. Namaste.

Speaking of …

Dogfish Head Namaste

Availability: Limited, Draft Only

A Belgian-style White made with dried organic orange slices, fresh cut lemongrass and a bit of coriander. This beer is a great summer quencher.

Namaste was originally brewed at our brewpub in with our friend Leo from Birra del Borgo in Italy as a tribute to our friends at 3 Fonteinen brewery in Belgium, who had devastating production loss (1/3 of their annual production!) at their brewery in 2009. You can read more about the original brewing of this beer here on Sam's blog.

For summer 2010, this beer will be brewed in a larger volume and packaged in bottles (750ml) and draft. It will be available in the great state of Delaware - both at our Milton, DE brewery and at our Rehoboth Beach, DE brewpub. We're shooting for an early June 2010 release.

ABV: 5.0%

If not for the fact it comes in these big bottles and is kinda pricy, this would have been a Serious Contender in the 2010 Lawnmower Beer Championship 3-Way Dance.

It pours a hazy amber with a quickly disappearing but brilliant meringue-ish white head. No wait time like Hoegaarden, so it scores very comparable to Whirlwind. It has a rich, hazy amber color; almost closer to an IPA than to a Wit [means “white, right?]. I like color. Sometimes lawnmower beers are just too light; let me know that I’m holding something substantial as a reward for the work I’ve done [assuming I have actually cut the grass].

DFH Namaste has a neither overpoweringly yeasty nor citrusy aroma; not quite the “bagel with Pledge” but more like lemon marmalade on white toast with just a dab of bananas foster. Great for sipping, as there are lot of flavors going on in there; all sorts of citrus [lemon, orange, grapefruit], spices [coriander and pepper], floral [lemongrass, nasturtium] … in fact it may be TOO busy. Your palate is so busy decoding things that it’s not exactly refreshing.However…

It’s got a stupid label. WTF is with a skeleton with Aquaman telepathy ripples coming from his hands??? Wait, is that an ape head on there??? And a tail???

Plus…It’s SERIOUSLY pricy = 22 oz. for the price of a six-pack of Whirlwind … that’s HUGE!!! In fact it’s the ONLY place where it falls short of Whirlwind.

You gotta give Sam props … he did something nice for his friend in Belgium, just because it was the right thing to do.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

With Daylight Savings Time now at an end [are we on Daylight WASTING Time now?] the mornings are slightly brighter than they have been for a while. In fact, the Reflecto-Vest may have been a touch superfluous on my first run of the season in long pants this weekend, but it DID manage to provide a bit of extra comfort when some pretty stiff breezes kicked up. This won’t last long, I know, and soon it will be just as dark and starry when I come home from my Pre-Dawn Patrol as it will be when I take off.

Sunset is dropping earlier now, too. Monday, sunset was at 4:52PM … right around the time that I left work for the day.

The shortening of the days is kicking off people’s concerns about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

“Anyone else a sufferer? Looking back, it's been a factor for about five years now and it gets worse every year. Since realizing that my, uh, issues are seasonal, I've taken steps to mitigate it as much as possible - medication, sunlight exposure, exercise, etc., but it still is a factor about half the time, mostly manifesting as insomnia. It does wonders for my exercise regimen, allowing me to get to the gym very early and get that done, but it certainly takes a toll.”

Personally, I LIKE this cold, dark, cloudy, grey, rainy time of year. It’s not at all because – perhaps – under this easygoing surfer/runner persona lurks a gloomy, murky, angst-ridden soul. Just because I was born on Halloween, doesn’t mean I’m all about Death and Doom. Sure, when I met D’Wife, my wardrobe was pretty monochromatic [black, mostly, but also, “slate” and “charcoal”], but that was a club-land sort of Fashion Requirement / Uniform.

I like this time of year; it energizes me, if anything else, for two simple and semi-selfish reasons:

First of all, the dreary weather presents a wonderful challenge for me as a runner. To get up, before Sunrise, and go out for a few miles when it’s definitely cold, possibly foggy and very likely raining, maybe even snowing, is a true measure of what kind of a Zen-Core Dork I really am. That being said, there are athletes whom I can’t even BEGIN to aspire to, in terms of getting out and performing in ultra-nasty conditions …Great Lakes Surfers

As documented in the film “Unsalted” [one of my favorite surf movies, BTW] these dudes go out when the air temp is below 20° and the water is just above freezing, usually with a pretty stiff wind, besides. Granted, Jersey surfers are just as hardcore, and we are FINALLY starting to get the recognition we deserve, but whenever I think that the weather is just too nasty for a run, it’s those guys & gals out on Lake Superior of whom I remind myself. Suddenly, things feel pretty sunny in comparison. I often find myself looking at the overnight weather reports and smiling when I see “Chance of Precipitation: 80%”

Soup for breakfast!!!

Or … my second reason for loving this waning time of the year: dark beers.

I’ve said before that I like to vary my “menu” by the season depending on the weather; “Example: Hefeweizens are only served when it’s 80° outside or warmer [preferably after cutting the grass]; stouts & porters are for 30-40° and overcast/rainy days.”

To me, nothing is more satisfying, more rewarding after a sloppy ride through the woods on a foggy afternoon or a drenching trot between football games, than a nice cool [not COLD] dark beer. Not a terribly strong one, mind you … not necessarily one whose name begins with “Old” … just something with enough kick to gently warm you back up, and enough toasty chocolate flavor in there to make you believe that you’re snacking on a post-workout cookie.

These elements blend wonderfully in Edmund Fitzgerald Porter by Great Lakes Brewing Co. There are three ships that are at the top of the Pop Culture regatta by virtue of being immortalized in song: the Titanic, the Minnow, and the Edmund Fitzgerald. In fact, in this week’s Social Studies lesson, D’Kid’s teacher found the video on YouTube and played it for the class on their SmartBoard … I found this rather amazing, since the song is probably older than Mrs. McNulty herself.

This was a most excellent choice for the season’s first dark beer. It is CocaCola-ish in color and capped with a sturdy creamy brown head. It brings the flavor of a chocolate almond biscotti dunked in iced mochaccino. It's not very strong [only 4.7% ABV] so you could easily put a couple away while waiting for your fingers & toes to thaw after a brilliantly inclement adventure.

No, I’m not so concerned about another bout of SAD this year. I’m looking forward to some nice sloppy runs and rides then enjoying some refreshing dark brews afterwards. There is no sinking feeling here, my friends; no storms, no shoals, no anchors, no negativity.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

glacial gla·cial (glā-shəl)adjSuggestive of the very slow movement of glaciersD’Wife decided that it was time for me to get a top-down physical, because it had been so very long since my last one. We’re both of “a certain age” now and neither of us is getting any younger. I think we’re holding up pretty well; better than well, in fact. With all modesty not many folks our age are nearly as “studly” as we are; training up to 60 miles a week on the bike in ALL weather, plus the running I’ve always done on top of that.

We’re fit old fuckers, D’Wife and me.

On St. Jude’s Day [October 28th] I visited our Primary to get the overview.

Height: 5’6”Weight: 155

Crap!!!

It wasn’t so long ago that I’d finally reached my “absolute minimum” weight per D’Wife’s instructions. Now, it seems, I have put it all back on. Granted fifteen pounds over two years isn’t a lot nor did it come on quickly [in fact, almost imperceptibly], but I’d thought I’d be able to maintain some sort of stability there. To my defense, we have been without a scale since Early Summer, so my ability to monitor this aspect has been hampered. It still sucks to know that after all this time – since beginning “400 Beers” – I am, again, back where I started. Truthfully, I’m up a little from that even; but at least I didn’t rebound up to my high-water point, two years previous to hitting that goal weight and four years past from today [a check-up which brought some irony of its own, as that was my HIGHEST weight, but LOWEST B/P]

Which is where we went next …

Blood pressure: 150/80

FUCK!!!

That’s NOT at ALL what I’d expected!!!

But then, things have been kinda stressful lately, PLUS being hurt and unable to run most of the Summer, may have affected my release mechanisms which would pump it up, so to speak. Historically, there have been some fluctuations over the years, as my Red Cross Blood Donor Card testifies; basically, I ramp up from normal [120/80-ish] to high [140+] and back down again over a cycle of 18 months or so.

My weight looks like it’s on a two-year rhythm.

As it so happened, they collided right about NOW, with devastating results.

Even with changes in diet [no more red meat, and even more green veggies], cycling to offset the lack of running for the cardio and more yoga added to the mix, I just couldn’t get out of the way this rogue wave of “uh-oh”

Blood work followed up with nothing out of the ordinary – sugar’s fine; liver and kidney functions are fine.

Like a friend of mine asked: “How can Mr. Cool, the Zen-Core Dork, possibly have high blood pressure???”

Maybe it was lurking just off the horizon all along, but we just happened to be fortunate enough spot it at this place and time.

“Thar she blows!!!”

In the meantime, I’ll continue on like I have in the past to bring the B/P back down: running on the Pre-Dawn Patrol, getting out on the bike when possible, prayer and meditation to de-stress, finding guilt-free time to do nothing if I feel like it and NOT taking everything so personally.

Basically, circumnavigate back around to 2007 and re-achieve those successes … we can totally do that.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Anyone looking at my RunningAhead Training Log would probably say, “Wow, he’s scary consistent” seeing that I almost always run at a 9-minute per mile pace. I’m in “maintenance mode” for the time being, just running for fun – and mental health - while not training for any particular race or time, I’m fairly relaxed with all the time-keeping and subsequent data analysis that some of my friends thrive on.

The truth is … I don't actually use the "Start/Stop" function on my watch these days. I know I should, but lately I’m content to use it to guesstimate how many miles I can get in. I allocate 10 minutes for each mile, running at 8½ to 9 minutes per PLUS another couple for cool-down.

For example, if I have about half an hour between tasks [like waiting for my clothes to go through the washer at the Laundromat, when ours was broken] I’ll say “That’s just enough time for 3 miles”

[I never DID do a run down there, as much fun as that would have been. That part of the Township happens to be sort of sketchy; not dangerous in any way, but I don’t know just how a little runner might have been regarded. I had a bit of an incident once while riding down there; it turns out that no matter how photogenic you think that a junkyard might be, some folks really don’t want you taking pictures of their rusting artifacts, regardless of HOW delightfully whimsical you found that old school bus to be]

Therefore, my “event duration” stats are accurate to … the nearest minute or so, maybe??? Some days I do get lucky and - in a fleeting moment of profound awareness - notice that “I finished my 5 miles in LESS than 45 minutes” How much less??? That can be tricky to define with any certainty.

Left Brain: I think we broke 9 minutes!!! When did we leave?Right Brain: After we did that toe-touchy thingL: When was that???R: After that ankle-grabby thingL: NO!!! I mean what time???!!!R: It was the 3rd Quarter; Michigan and Illinois were tied at 38L:OF DAY!!!R: Can't help yaL: I. Hate. You

When I shared this with my buddy, Dan the Man, he replied: “Dude, I love how you embrace seasonality!!! I tend drink the same things all year round, trying different things when I’m out, but keeping the same ‘stable’ of ‘go-to beers’ at home”

Maybe I’m weird, but I choose my brew by checking the Weather Channel. Example: Hefeweizens are only served when it’s 80° outside or warmer [preferably after cutting the grass]; stouts & porters are for 30-40° and overcast/rainy days.

Let us NOT forget the Gold Standard of Beer Reviews:

Paulaner Oktoberfest: I have to say it but this IS Oktoberfest. Hints of orange, hazelnut and nutmeg caress the palate and it's deep red amber color seduces the eye. If you close your eyes you can almost see Mad Ludwig's castle. After just a couple, you'll want to go kill a wild boar, do a polka, bang a fat chick or some Bavarian shit like that!!!

That being said, I did NOT dive full head-long into a binge … I have priorities.

You’ve no doubt heard about golfers who “Shoot Their Age” … Generally an older guy who’s good enough at 67 to SHOOT a 67; or a dude of 89 who not only can still play golf at 89 [like my GrandPop did] but can break 90, as well.

Well, I can’t exactly run 49 miles nor 49K, even. Taking my BIKE out for 49K [roughly, 30 miles] might have been doable, but a TREMENDOUS stretch, as our 45 miles for MS150 was my longest ride of the year. With D’Wife working a half-day on Halloween, a FOURpointNINE mile run was the acceptable celebration.That the Weather Channel said it was 49° at 6:49AM was just gravy [yeah, I let myself sleep in] I was fortunate enough to finish in less than 49 minutes [yeah, I actually tried to slow down to an overall 10:00 pace, but – God Bless – I was just too fast, LOL. Not like the time I got lost in the fog and busted into 8:30-ville]

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Piney is a derogatory term that refers to native inhabitants of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Pine Barrens have sandy, acidic soil considered unsuitable for traditional farming by early settlers, who called the land "barren". The area is forested mainly with pitch pine and scrub oak. Many areas are swampy with cedar forests that grow along brownish-red, fresh water called "cedar water". The red color is actually created by the high level of iron-ore in the soil.

Living conditions in the "Barrens" were considered inhospitable, and those that lived there were considered to be the dregs of society, fugitives, poachers, moonshiners, runaway slaves or deserting soldiers. Often poor, Pineys were forced to make a living in any way possible. They collected and sold sphagnum moss or pine cones, hunted, fished, and lived off of the land. Some of the pineys included notorious bandits known as the Pine Robbers.

Pineys often fostered stories of how terrible the Pine Barrens are or how violent they were in order to discourage outsiders and law enforcement from entering the Barrens. The Jersey Devil stories often had this effect.

Today, pineys tend to wear the label as a badge of honor, much like the term "redneck" has become in the Appalachian Mountains and the Southern United States.

***

Ran watchless, and didn't notice EXACTLY what time I left the house, nor when I came back in; so I'm TOTALLY guessing on my time [5 miles in about 45 minutes]. It "felt" about my usual casual 9-minute per mile pace.

A gorgeous warm October afternoon ... Do you know, fallen and dried pine needles have a VERY different aroma when they've been warmed up by the splintered sunlight of the woods than they do under the cold Pre-Dawn stars, clouds and fog.

In the daytime they have a cozy scent, like freshly baked bread; very comforting and protective. At night-time they have a more cleansing aspect; not necessarily medicinal [like witch-hazel, for example, which is kinda close] but a sort of purifying way ... like the pine goes into your nose and your lungs to clear the troubles out of your soul.

Oh, yeah ... I got beaned in the noggin again - not by an acorn, but a pinecone this time ... couldja tell???

Friday, October 08, 2010

Airline Flight City of Origin Time Gate StatusUS Airways 1466 SAN FRANCISCO 6:05 AM B9 ON TIME

US Airways 258 PHOENIX 6:07 AM C27 622 AM

US Airways 1446 LOS ANGELES 6:11 AM A10 609 AM

US Airways 154 SAN DIEGO 6:12 AM C23 611 AM

US Airways 70 SEATTLE 6:12 AM B7 609 AMUS Airways 3345 PITTSBURGH 6:35 AM B10 ON TIME My morning runs are generally done in relative silence.What sounds there are, carry for quite a distance and with amazing clarity. There is a NJ Transit commuter train that comes by at 5:15AM which serves as my secondary wake-up call [the first being the subtle beeping of the Timex IronMan watch on my wrist at 5:00] as I can hear it from my bedroom, one mile away.

Once up, stretched, and out, it’s a pretty void landscape, soundwise. No one is up and moving outside in the development yet [come Winter, though, I’m sure many cars will be rumbling quietly as the idle at curbside in their warm-up mode]. For the most part, the only sounds I detect starting out are my own breathing and crunchy footsteps as I trot across the roadside gravel ... very, VERY Zen.

About fifty yards from The Pike, I can sometimes hear the clicking of the timing mechanism of the stoplight. Do I ever adjust my pace [read: sprint] to beat the light? Nah, NOT on the way out since it is pretty likely that I’ll be able to cross against the light due to a lack of traffic or at least jump the gap between cars; well, trucks actually, because most of the drivers I come across at that time are contractors on their way to their work-sites* or delivery people [lots of bakery trucks!!!]

If I take the route past D’Kid’s School, I’ll take a moment about the One Mile mark to say a “Hail Mary” at the Blessed Mother, and chat if need be. “Talk to Mom” is how I refer to it with my other Zen Catholic friends

More often than not, when I run on THIS side of Waterford Twp. [the “Fun” Side; where I race trains and get chased by peacocks] on especially cloudy mornings, when the wind is just right, I am aware of a low whooshing sound high above as I make my way on that last mile home. I will look up and see, in the high mist, a bright spot … sometimes The Moon, stationary and smiling at me behind her cloudy veil; but more often something moving along at a quick clip.

A glow becomes a beam; the beam pulls forward its source; the source morphs from a semi-geometric shape of lights to a fully realized object with highlights and shadows … An airplane … most likely “First Flight In’

I always feel badly for these folk; just ARRIVING in PHL long before dawn [I reckon there’s only about ten minutes of flying time left once you’re over my head, and it’s pretty dark “right now”] ... I’m doing the math backwards: When did they depart? Three hours ago, maybe??? So they had to be at the airport when? Five hours ago??? So they left home when? Seven hours ago??? I had just gone to bed, when they left the house to come to Philly.

That must suck

And yet, someone might be look out of their window as they make their approach turn to Philly and see a couple of blinking lights [my Team Tania blinkies], moving slowly past a NJ Transit train track in the dark, maybe in the rain, and think – or even say quietly to themselves ...

Friday, October 01, 2010

There are some events which hinge on very specific circumstances for them to take place. You have to have the perfect combination of weather, timing and competitors for it to go off. These include, but are not limited to, the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational, most popularly known as “The Eddie” in memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea; or the newly christened “The Jay at Maverick’s Big Wave Invitational” at Mavericks in memory of Jay Moriarity. The stipulations for the match to held are simple: within a certain window of time, if and when the conditions get HUGE ENOUGH, the pre-selected competitors have 48 hours to get their butts in the water and compete.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen.

So it was with the 2010 LawnMower Beer Championship. With the heat and drought we had over this Summer, the grass never really got high enough to pull a massive all-morning “Sweatin’ Like Nixon” horticultural/agricultural/landscapational event. Now that we're into Fall ... I'm calling it a DNS = Did Not Start.

For it’s worth, the line-up probably would have been:

Victory Whirlwind Wit [Defending Champion]Harpoon UFO HefeweizenSouthern Tier Hop SunI've been enjoying this all Summer, but never took the opportunity to put them side-by-side-by-sideMy apologies, but stay tuned for 2011

Thursday, September 30, 2010

RUDY is dressed and ready for work. He is busy making the family’s lunches in a short assembly-line fashion, i.e., bread-bread-bread, cheese-cheese-cheese, lunchmeat-lunchmeat-lunchmeat, wrap-wrap-wrap, bag-bag-bag, and so on.

D’KID is also dressed, but hardly ready for school. Her hair is a serious mess, resembling wildly grown shrubbery than a hairstyle. She sits at the kitchen table, deftly “schemer”-ing her toasted bagel with cream cheese.

On paper, it is. My training log looks like a gappy blue picket fence of perfectly level slats. Even the pacing is just about the same day after day[mostly because I round my times off significantly]

Every run however is different, just as every wave is different. There are the changes in weather, naturally; but I mean more that just that.

Some days, as I’m stretching, I’ll have in my mind that I’m going to do one route, but when I get to the decision point, I’ll change my mind and do the other [or just forget where I was going HA!] Other days, I’ll stick with my plan and, almost as a reward, I’ll see or hear something I hadn’t noticed before.

There are internal, subconscious variations as well. My mind will wander in ways I hadn’t foreseen. The internal radio station [Noggin 101FM] might play one song at mile one on Monday, and another on Wednesday; even though the playlist on the iPod as I was doing my pre-run Punk-Yoga was exactly the same.

They say that Ben Hogan wasn’t allowed to play the same golf course two days in a row, because he was so consistent that his ball would land in the divot he’d struck the day before. I’m all for consistency, but it’s not like I’ll be putting my foot down in my own shoe-prints anytime soon.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

The first 10 miles or so were fairly shady and comfortable, but it got pretty warm down to the 2nd rest stop. Along the marsh was cooler, as there was more of a breeze. The last rest stop wasn’t at the park/field like last year, but at a school that looked pretty new, which was nice. We had a crosswind from the left on the first bridge and a headwind on the 2nd. D’Wife was pretty well bonked by the time we rolled into OC; but we finished around 3:20 – at least an hour earlier than last year.

Oh! We saw Capt. Stacey & SafetyMan at the first stop, which was SO AWESOME!!! And at the tent, of course.

We caught the 6PM Bus back to Hammonton; we were the last ones on & had to STAND the whole way. We got to our house about 7:30, showered, changed, I got the bikes put away & we picked up D’Kid. I FINALLY got my post-ride beer [Flying Dog Dogtoberfest] at about 9:30 LOL

Then I remembered something Donna asked me sometime after we'd finished and were walking the Boardwalk."How much beer did you drink last night [Friday]?""Only two," I replied "One with dinner, then another around 10; to calm down & get to sleep""You are SO good," she complimented, "That Greg Norman Shiraz went down too smooth"''Smooth-LY'' I said under my breath, correcting her grammar as I am known to do.I didn't think anything of it until I was pouring my beer. You see, she had been low on her Shiraz and I figured I'd pick up a bottle Friday night, since I didn't know where we'd be Saturday post-race or when we'd get or if we'd have time to hit Canal's on they final leg back to the house.Turns out, she'd drunk all but a glass and a half of the bottle on Race Night.Basically, she rode 45 miles on a hangover!!!Yeah, it was stupid on her part, but I HAVE TO give her props for doing the ride, finishing strong and not even mentioning it ... that's Hard CoreI TOTALLY forgive whatever bitchy-ness she may have given me on the road [which was substantial, mostly stemming from camera issues, sorry to say]All in all, it was a great ride, for a good cause and we looked AWESOME at the finish in Ocean City

****

Team Tania fielded 422 riders this year [down from last year’s 465] and raised more than a quarter of a million dollars to fight MS; but still feel just short of Captain Stacey’s goal of $275K.

In an email the week of the ride she said “This will be our last year riding as Team Tania.”

She had her reasons and they make sense: “Because staying the same in a changing world is like moving backwards. If we don't do something more, something different, we will lose our effectiveness” PLUS She’s moving to more responsibility in the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter.

However there is ONE part of her email that worries me: “If I have my say, some of you will step right up to the plate and form your own MS cycling teams. You've got great ideas, energy and passion. You have been waiting for just this opportunity to create your own way. And hopefully you'll take what you've witnessed as the best of Team Tania with you, including some of your teammates. “

Yeah, the Midnight Madness girls have already named me Captain of Team “We don’t have a name yet, but we’re sure Randy will come up with something awesome … and make us some nice jerseys, too!!!”

Sunday, September 19, 2010

In my own personal internal calendar, Fall begins at about 4PM on Distance Run Sunday* ... I usually celebrate by pouring a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale.

That being said, the last BEACH day of the year wil be Saturday when D'Wife & I roll into Ocean City, NJ after pedalling 4 dozen miles or so ... did I ever mention how the ride ends??? Yeah we gotta ride 40-something miles or so across the reasonably bumpy Jersey marshlands then, just for fun ... up & over this little bridge

Oh, wait ... there's TWO of them

it can be a pretty hairy "Share The Road" Experience

ETA: Thanks EVERYONE for your support to me, D'Wife and the National MS Society ... That is what it's for ... The Twin Bridges are just a metaphor for the struggles that people with MS face All Day EVERYDAY!!! It takes power, determination and [for those of us who are afraid of heights] courage to conquer these two obstacles in the last hour of our day, once a year ... Imagine what people with MS go through ... compared to that? It's a cake-walk ... thanks again to our Sponsors [material and otherwise]

* ReGARDless of what ING and their $$$ says the race is called, to those who have run it and love it, it will ALWAYS be The Distance Run

Sunday, August 22, 2010

With the rain coming on and off this morning [varying in intensity between sprinkles and downpours], and D'Kid down at her BFFs house for the afternoon, I thought I might be able to get a nice drizzly 20-miler in today.It was sufficiently cloudy when I left the house [Team Tania jersey in FULL glory] that I didn’t expect it to be long before I was soaking. Yeah well, my weather-reading skills aren’t what they used to be. Although the air was thick & humid, it was still too warm for it to shift over to precipitation. What was worse, at about the 8-mile mark, the sun actually came out, warming the roads and what puddles & dampness were left from earlier in the day. The upside was that the woods were spectacularly lush this afternoon.It had been a while since I rode this particular route; it’s NOT one of D’Wife’s favorites and there is a considerable bit of climbing [“climbing” being a relative term, down here in Farm Country]. So it was understandable that I didn’t turn where I should have gone left and added a nice 2-mile loop to my journey. When I re-found myself at the intersection where I’d made this mistake [by SHEER Dumb Luck, I must add] … wouldn’t you know, I almost made the same turn AGAIN???This is where the oddities of my own “special” Zen-Core Dork Brain come in.“Okay, looks like your 20-miler is gonna come to 22 … but that’s kind of a funky number; it won’t look good on your log … let’s go for 24”I reached the 24-mile mark about ½-mile out from home.“Might as well make 25!!!”I pedaled around an adjacent development.“You know,” my Zen-Core voice told me “Using 1.5 points per mile, your VRAA score for the ride would be37.5. Why not go to 26 and make it an even 39? Plus, you don’t want to go LESS than 2 hours do you?” I rolled into the driveway at 4:15 on the dot … EXACTLY 2 hours after I’d left.I did 100 push-ups to bump my VRAA points to 40 on the day.It rained at about 5:30; a massive downpour that would have probably taken me off my wheels had it come by while I was on the road … Fortunately, I was already into a pint of RiverHorse Hop Hazard and could enjoy the cool grey storminess outside from the safety of my kitchen.[My buddy Satch added "You could have down another 0.2 and said you rode a marathon" ... If I'd thought of it, I probably WOULD have]

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

As if the heat & humidity we’ve been suffering with aren't bad enough, I stepped off the porch yesterday morning and got a face-full of just-begun spider web ... NO amount of bug spray is gonna fix THAT!!!

ugh!!!!

I did my best to brush the sticky silk off my nose & mouth, and ears even, but the thought that perhaps I had a little hitchhiker in my hair kinda took me off my game, running the 4 mile loop in about 37 minutes [I know, you'd think the arachnophobically-induced adrenalin-rush would make me go a little faster, right??? Nope!!!]Of course, there were no sprinklers running that I might rinse her off and cool down just a bit ... when I got in the post-run shower [fully dressed in my running gear, like I usually do when it’s nearly 80° with 80% humidity and I’m Sweating like Nixon and it’s not even 7AM yet] I didn't see any crawly friend in the tub, so all that worrying was for nothing.

I can't tell you how many times I've come back from early morning trail runs/rides wearing a spider-silk mask/hairnet. The "nice" thing is pulling a "leaf" out of your hair in the shower and watching it unfold and crawl away. Funny, my reaction was usually, "Oh, Hi there!!!"

While one of my friends once commented that she’d “try to save the little dude or dudette from drowning,” I would not get carried away, here ... I mean I would gladly assist her to an open window if that's where she's headed [most adult spiders are girls, the dudes don't make it long] but I'm not going to "Extraordinary Measures" if she's going down the drain, either.

By bedtime, Little Miss Creepy Crawlie had a new construction up ... AWAY from the porch steps, but firmly fixed to the railing. She's a smart girl; any moth-like buggies flying toward the porch light would prolly end up as dinner ... Spidery Strategery!!!

I'm so glad she wasn't home when I walked thru her house; she's about 2' long a 3/4" wide all cuddled up in the center of her silvery net [6cm x 2cm for those metrically inclined]

My grandmom used to tell me that if you kill a spider, it will bring rain. As much as we need it, I wouldn’t want to CRUNCH this little girl.

As luck would have it, we DID get a shower last night at about 2:30AM; but with the nightmare our little web-weaver induced in me, I bailed on my run this morning to make up for the sleep I missed.

When I got up to start my day, I took a peek to see if she'd survived the rainstorm.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

I never met Voo IRL, but I really enjoyed having him around. He & I trained at just about the same pace [except he ran a LOT further than me] and we had the same running philosophy - or lack thereof.

RandMart:I run as best as I can every day and try to do better than the day before. If I do - great; if not - no big deal.Is this wrong?

Voodoojunkie:Yes. But it's about the same thing I do.

We always wanted to do a race together ... for ONE reason only ... can you imagine the race pic??? The Caveman and The Surfer!!! Giant, dark, dreadlocked Joe and little, vanilla, rabbit-haired Randy

One day shortly after his passing, I woke up to a nasty, rainy hurricane-ishly downpouring morning. I had 8 miles on my Distance Run training schedule. Normally, I'd just wait until the rain calmed a bit before I went, but I feared a) it wouldn't calm and b) when it did, it would be too late to get D'Girls ready for a cookout we were going to in PA

Three words kept echoing in my head "Voo would go" You see, surfers have an expression "Eddie would go" that means HTFU and do it.

So I left the house at 6AM in a continuous and torrential downpour; I was soaked at 1/4 mile.

Later that day, D'Wife was talking to one of our church friends, who told her, "I saw Randy running in the rain this morning ... The street was pretty flooded, but he didn't seem to mind. I think he was actually smiling ... He's nuts, you know?"

Voo was with me that morning, and we were having a blast. In fact he's with me ANY TIME things get challenging or dicey.Voo The Fuck Up

My best on that course is about 64 minutes, so maybe we make it close next year, huh, Miss A???

AggieRe: Midnight Madness Results are up

Ha ha ha

Look at that... They made a mistake on my age...

Well, Randy, like good wine I am only expecting to be better next year... Is 64 minutes your time biking the 8 miles or running? Haha, I promised some trash talking...

RandyRe: Midnight Madness Results are up

Yeah that number looks way high … Makes me wonder if they even count laps correctly

64 minutes was JUST running, a long time ago. Last year I ran the course [starting late, as we all know], THEN biked it in about 2 hours for BOTH!!!

AggieRe: Midnight Madness Results are up

Well, if it is said in [...] then it must be true... I want hard facts and a head-to-head competition... And Jen knows that I would rather puke from heat exhaustion than let you beat me :-)

RandyRe: Midnight Madness Results are up

I am a small, [relatively] hairless mammal with a high metabolism = heat doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I kinda like it. I used to live in Florida way back when, so I’m okay with humidity, too. Hey Jen, how long was my A/C out for???

Sadly, I lack a real killer instinct … I’m a little too surfy for hardcore competitions; so you just run ahead and be my pace bunny, how’s that??? If I slip up and happen to drop the hammer with 400 yards to go = Ooops!!! my bad

JenORe: Midnight Madness Results are up

LMAO - do I need to separate you two?? I am already looking forward to the grudge match next year!!

RandyRe: Midnight Madness Results are up

“She started it!!!” LOL

No need for a “Grudge Match” per se … Aggie already beat “me” in May; I would sure HOPE she wouldn’t lose to a little old man like myself … We’ll have to come up with something in the interim, just to make sure she’s on top of her game

AggieRe: Midnight Madness Results are up

Ha ha, I'm not too concerned. I am working on my aerodynamics (I noted Randy's advantage of being hairless) and am not at all buying his lack of killer instinct.

I will approach it like other competitions in the past, with dedication and unyielding training discipline. If that fails, I'll also be prepared to kick an ankle of any "small, [relatively] hairless mammal" who tries to "drop the hammer with 400 yards to go " Ha ha ha, kidding, of course...

Randy, I'm always up for a challenge!!! Make me an offer I can't refuse. Maybe the Philly 1/2 marathon in September?

RandyRe: Midnight Madness Results are up

Unyielding discipline … nope, that’s NOT me … I totally yield and have no discipline = I just run whenever I can, as far as I have time for

“Maybe the Philly 1/2 marathon in September?” D’Wife and I will be focused on bike training for MS150 which happens the weekend after The Distance Run

As JenO knows, a tough part of scheduling races for me is that D’Wife works Sundays; if I can find someone to take care of Mariel [our 10 year-old] for the day, or half a day, the Ben Franklin Bridge 10K or Philly Half in November might work?

No rush to fill up the calendar just yet

Apparently you finished before me last year, too [subtract my 10-minute late start and we’d have finished together-ish] …

THIS is the part of racing that I love … and that I miss most. It’s not the training, which is just an extension of my morning Zen-finding workout; it’s not the pre-race prep rituals, which are curious manifestations of my rampant OCD and unbridled superstitions; nor is it the medals [the “shiny things” as my friend Genie calls them].

I love talking the smack … It’s a combination of friendly competition + subconscious self-motivation + a little bit a creative writing practice, which bring a lot of fun to the journey of training and anticipation of a big race.

Doe and I had some EPIC conversations that I’m sure anyone who was on the distro would have been rolling in their offices in laughter while reading. And guess what? We usually performed better than we expected of ourselves; let the best runner win [the Head-to-Head Series on the road is tied with his win against me at Broad Street 10M last year while I took the 10K from him in 2008; his 10M time is only about 5 minutes ahead of my v2.0 PR]

So when are Aggie & I gonna actually "throw down???" I’m not sure, but a year is FAR too long to wait … October maybe???

http://www.acmarathon.org/There’s a brew pub down in AC that I’ve always wanted to visit, and it’s only a little ways from the finish line …

“Tun Tavern, conveniently located directly across the street from the Atlantic City convention center, started as Philadelphia’s first brew house in 1685 built by Samuel Carpenter. After relocating to the East Coast’s little city of sin, they have established themselves as one of the premier brewers in this area providing diners and drinkers alike with over 10 brews brewed on the premises

“Beer connoisseurs and drunks alike can enjoy everything from their specialty Tunfest Lager, a “rich malty amber brewed strong to celebrate the seasons harvest”, or the Crimson Ale, a highly drinkable and tasty brew with a hint of dark malt to add some flavor, as well as a brandywine style bev with “sweet malty-ness followed by generous hoppy-ness, aptly named the Freedom Ale, ‘cause ain’t no way an American brewery’s not gonna have the word freedom on the menu somewhere."“There’s nothing like a local place to makes you feel special, so if you reside within one hour of Atlantic City, stop in and sign up for their VIP Program which gives you the opportunity to take advantage of sweet deals and preferred seating, although keg stands are still against the rules… so it’s a good thing you brought your beer bong.”